At the Librarium there is an option C for miscellaneous information. It has "Spacraft" and "planets." When I added my descriptions for my unique alien spacecraft those descriptions were automatically added to that section of the Library. Why weren't my unique alien planet descriptions added to the "Planets" section?

My alien planets do appear under the various races they are associated with, so what is supposed to be described in item C of the Librarium, under "Planets?"

Also, I was wondering if anyone knows how to write a "name" file for their aliens. I read the instructions JP added, and they left me with somewhat of a confused look on my face. So, I figured I'd run the "sample" program, and guess what, got run time errors on it.

Can anyone walk me through the "name files for complete idiots?"

Sgo

ok, I'm starting to pull my hair out and that's not easy because I have a crew cut! I created a planet that I set "no" for general deployment, it's only for the Alien Race. I gave that Race, that planet, and sure enough they created the planet. Now, I "should" be able to put a description ansi assigned to that planet into the game, and whenever someone visits the Librarium, and selects that particular Race, and selects "Home World" up pops option "A" which has the type of homeworld they use, but when you SELECT option A it still says "no information available." Simply, nothing comes up under this option. Now here's the hard part. I created a "text" only version of this description, and assigned it to the planet, then went to the librarium, and lo and behold the option that wouldn't work, now works, and check this out, it's the ANSI file showing.

In other words, it won't show the ANSI file, unless you have created both an ANSI file AND a TXT file for this unique planet! HEH!

By the way, that still doesn't answer my first question. If you go to Librarium and select option C, miscellaneous documents it give you option A Spacecraft, option B Planets. If I select option A it lists all my unique alien spacecraft I have created. You would think option b would list the unique alien planets you've created? Not so! You get "no information available" and that's with description files loaded and working for all my unique alien planets.

I hope someone can shed some light on this.

Could it be for manual planets, that aren't alien homeworlds or planets you can get out of a torp?

quote:Originally posted by Narkon

Could it be for manual planets, that aren't alien homeworlds or planets you can get out of a torp?


I have ansi and text description files for ever planet in existence in the universe installed. None of them show up there. I just have no idea what that option does.

Have you put one of the manual planets in the game yet?
You know how the Ferrengi ship doesn't show up until it is in the game?

quote:Originally posted by Narkon

Have you put one of the manual planets in the game yet?
You know how the Ferrengi ship doesn't show up until it is in the game?


If by "manual" you are referring to a planet that is activated "manually" like the Derelict ships? No such thing as far as I can see. There is no option for that in the planet editor, there are two options for planets General yes or no. Saying no makes it an alien specific planet, saying yes makes it available to players.

Here's another odd thing. I have an alien race that keeps being reported in the "Archive of Galactic Organizations" section of the Librarium. It is a standard Alien race, but it does not appear with the others under option A of the Librarium, it only appears in option B. I have ansi files loaded for the planet that belongs to that race, however, when I go to option B I can only review the race description and the preferred ships, when I select the option to review the planet I get "no information" every time. I've checked and double checked the ansi files and the text files for this planet, they are good. So, why this race shows up in category B, and why I can't review the planet is beyond me.

Try changing option J on the first page of the alien editor to NO and that should move it out of organizations. It sounds like the problems you are having is because you need a better understanding of the editor. I appologise that I dont have time to explain your posts right now but maybe Harley or someone else can. Good luck.

quote:Originally posted by Boss

Try changing option J on the first page of the alien editor to NO and that should move it out of organizations. It sounds like the problems you are having is because you need a better understanding of the editor. I appologise that I dont have time to explain your posts right now but maybe Harley or someone else can. Good luck.


Heh, you are right! I absolutely don't know how that got set to on! I didn't even bother to look. You are also right about my understanding of the editor, that's why I've been coming here for advice. Thanks for the tip, and I'm learning as I go.

quote:Originally posted by Boss

Try changing option J on the first page of the alien editor to NO and that should move it out of organizations. It sounds like the problems you are having is because you need a better understanding of the editor. I appologise that I dont have time to explain your posts right now but maybe Harley or someone else can. Good luck.


One more thing. Yes, I didn't realize that the option J sets the race as an organization. I also didn't realize that setting a ship as Unique then requires you to manually deploy it at rebang. (It shouldn't, only setting it to manual should require manual deployment but we won't get into that). When it comes to messing with Aliens I'm new, because I've never used a Gold Editor in my life.

I thank you for your kind tip, and appreciate you taking your time out of your busy day to read my humble postings and to respond.

As for the one item I still can't understand, it may be also my lack of understanding of the editor, but I tell you this, I have ansi and text descriptions for every planet in the universe, yet, when I go to "general information" in the Librarium, and select "planets" I get "no information available." In this instance, if it's my lack of understanding of the editor, it's probably because of the lack of information within the editor itself.

I can find nothing about what information is to be found at this location in the Librarium, I've never seen any information there in any game I've ever played, and I don't see where in the editor to go to insert information. The planet ansi's all work.

When I do a C and J, I can look at each planet description.

When I go to the Alien option at the Librarium, I can examine each of their homeworlds. Therefore, I know my planet descriptions are in working order.

The only thing I must conclude is that this feature has no purpose. The same goes for the "planet" option in the "other organizations" section of Librarium. If, when you set an alien race to be an organization, you can assign their planet a description all day long, and you will still get "no information" when you select "planets" under their menu in the Librarium. I have to wonder why the option is there.

That is ONE reason I've posted these items here.

The second is, others who might also be learning to use the editor might learn the same lessons I've learned from helpful people like yourself.

I appreciate the input.

Thanks

By the way, I set the option J to NO for organizations, it did move ID zero aliens to the Alien group, HOWEVER, it STILL will not give any information when you select to look at their homeworld. I even changed ansi files to several other planets, it just won't give information on the homeworld for alien ID zero. I still think it could be because this used to be the game generated alien's slot. Of course, before you ask, at rebang I left "internal aliens" set to off! No, it just won't show a planet description for alien group ID zero.